Family Matters
by JediBarrissOffee
Summary: Luminara and Barriss are sent to Mirial due to the fact that they cannot get along... while there they discover some unexpected aspects of their lives... Not a femslash.
1. Chapter 1

Summary:

Luminara and Barriss are sent back to Mirial on the important mission of learning how to get along properly. There, they find out that they're sisters. But something else is going on…

* * *

"Barriss Offee _what_ are you doing?" Luminara yelled at her padawan.

Barriss looked up from her book at her master's voice. "Um, reading…"

"Barriss, I told you an hour ago to come to the training arena!"

"Oh… oops…"

"Oops? Oops? That doesn't cut it Barriss, because of your absence the entire training session was thrown off! Why didn't you come when I called you?"

Barriss shrugged. "I forgot…"

Luminara walked over to her padawan and looked down at her. "You _forgot_. Did you _forget_ to eat breakfast? Did you _forget _to get dressed this morning?"

"No…" The padawan looked down.

"Then how could you forget a training session that we've been planning with master Windu for the last week? _Especially _after I called you and informed you to come."

Barriss shrugged again. "I dunno…"

Luminara sighed. "Barriss this is becoming a problem, if you miss many more training sessions your training as a Jedi padawan will be affected."

"Then why don't you teach me?" Barriss countered.

"I try to! You don't listen to anything I say!"

"Yes I do!"

"Then show me a form III stance. I taught you this yesterday."

Barriss blinked. "Um…"

"Exactly."

"Master I don't understand the way you teach! It's too complicated! I can't learn something I don't understand!"

"What?"

"You tell me to do something but don't explain why it's important!"

"Barriss I explain things!"

"Not the way your supposed to!"

"And what way it that?"

"IN TERMS THAT A TEENAGER CAN UNDERSTAND!"

"IF YOU PAYED MORE ATTENSION YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND WHAT I SAY!"

"MASTER I CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU SAY HALF THE TIME YOU TALK!"

"THEN PAY ATTENSION-"

"ENOUGH!" Both Mirialans looked around to face the door to the quarters and spotted a fuming Mace Windu standing there. "This has to stop! You have fought like this for long enough! Both of you, report to the council room in five minutes!" He stormed off.

Luminara blinked and looked down at her padawan. "Congratulations Barriss. Now we're in trouble with the council."

"How is this my fault?"

"Just shut up and come on… If we're late we'll be in big trouble…"

Five minutes later they were standing in the middle of the council chamber facing the twelve highest ranking Jedi in the order. None of them looked happy to be there.

"Master Unduli. As many of us have noticed, for a long period of time you have been getting into rather ridiculous arguments with your padawan, Barriss Offee. This has gone on for long enough. We have all come to the conclusion to suspend you both from your duties as Jedi until you can learn to get along. We are sending you back to your home planet of Mirial to hopefully learn to get along better." Mace said.

Luminara's jaw had dropped during this speech. "But… Master Windu… don't you think that's a bit harsh…?"

He blinked. "No. And if you think that this isn't sufficient enough I can just as easily eject you from the order completely."

"Yes, Master Windu…" She looked down.

"Good. Now, the transport for Mirial will be leaving in an hour. You are to both be on that shuttle by then."

"Yes, Master Windu…" She said again. 


	2. Chapter 2

One hour later, they were both on the shuttle on their way to Mirial. The trip was a few hours long, not a very long one, but also not a short one. By the time the transport landed, both passengers were quite annoyed with each other. Before they got off the ship they put on dust masks that would keep out the sand. They stepped out onto the cold sands and looked out to the barren landscape. There was nothing in sight in all directions apart from the ship which was already taking off. This didn't mean anything though, as Luminara already knew. Everything on Mirial was underground. The houses and the mines. The only thing that told you of a house nearby was a small section of the house being up out of the ground. This was the door. The only things that told you of the mines were the large holes in the ground at random intervals.

The planet was extremely cold, and dry. There was very little vegetation on the planet and even less water. When you could find a water source, the chances were that it was most likely frozen. The winds never stopped, always blowing up clouds of sand in never ending sandstorms.

Luminara and Barriss looked around and decided on a direction to walk. They chose to go toward a large dune of sand. They were going to stand on top of it and see if they could see anything in the distance.

They walked in silence, both too focused on trying to stay warm and keeping the sand out of their eyes and ears to even think about talking. Once at the top of the hill they looked around and the first thing that caught their eyes was the huge hole in front of them. It had a single ladder going all the way down into the blackness. A mine. They looked at each other and nodded giving each other the signal that meant they were going down.

Luminara was the first to go down, trusting the ladder to hold her as she climbed down. After her came Barriss, who was a bit lighter. Once they were both down in the mine they removed the masks and looked around. They were in a shaft that was still being worked on. There were many people working, chipping away at the rock with manual pick axes.

These people looked much like Luminara or Barriss. All of them had skin that was some shade of green or yellow, and their hands and faces were all adorned with different designs of tattoos. None of them noticed the two Jedi as they walked by. After a few minutes of walking in silence they were stopped by a large human.

"Why aren't you two working?" He asked eyeing the two suspiciously.

"We are not slaves." Luminara said coolly.

"You are Mirialan. I am no fool, all of your people are enslaved. Now get back to work."

"I already told you, we are not slaves, therefore, we do not have to work."

"And I already told you to get to work, now you will do so immediately or else I will beat you!"

Luminara started to become irritated. She waved her hand in front of the man's face. "We are not slaves." She said again.

The man's face went blank. "You are not slaves…"

"We are Jedi."

"You are Jedi…"

Luminara turned around to face her padawan. "Barriss where should we go?"

Barriss blinked. "How should I know?"

Luminara scowled and turned back to the man. "We are looking for the Unduli household."

"There is no Unduli household…"

Luminara blinked. Strange but not unheard of. "Okay… what about an Offee household?"

"Five miles to the north…"

Luminara nodded her thanks to the man and got an amusing idea. Instead of continuing her journey onward she took a moment to wave her hand in front of the man's face again. "You will go and mine alongside your slaves."

"I will go and mine alongside my slaves…" He turned around and walked over to a rack that stored pickaxes, grabbed one, and went to a wall and started mindlessly swinging at the wall with the pickaxe.

Luminara allowed a satisfied smile to pass over her lips as she watched this in interest. Though, soon she grew bored with it and started to walk forward. Barriss followed with a look of astonishment on her face.

"Master, what was that?" She asked in sudden interest.

"What was what?" Luminara asked with false boredom.

"_That!_ Back there, what you did to that man!"

Luminara looked disapprovingly at her padawan. "That, as you should know from previous lessons that I have taught you, was Force persuasion."

Barriss rolled her eyes. "I know _what_ it was, but why did you do it?"

"Would you rather be mining right now?"

"No… But that's not what I meant. Why did you make him mine? That has nothing to do with what we're doing here."

"Because, I believe that he should know what he puts his slaves through." Luminara said matter-of-factly.

Barriss nearly stopped walking all together. "Master, that's considered personal gain… that's against the code…"

"Barriss, we are at the moment suspended from the order. In case you weren't listening."

"What exactly does that mean again?" She asked, confused.

"It means we are not allowed on missions, or at the Jedi Temple. But it also means that the code does not apply to us." At the Padawan's enlightened expression, Luminara added. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't respect it. I only did that because of my personal belief that a slave owner shouldn't force its slave into work that it would not do itself."

Barriss was slightly downcast at the last remark but a new question formed in her mind and quickly lifted her spirits. "Master, why did you ask if there was an Offee household?"

"Because, we are on Mirial. It is a very cold and desolate place. I know that we cannot fend for ourselves out in the deserts so I was hoping we may be able to locate our families on this planet."

"You mean we might get to see our parents?"

Luminara smiled at her Padawan's excitement. "Possibly, but we have to find them first."

"Shouldn't we go back up to the surface and walk then?"

"Barriss, use some common sense. If we walk on the surface we'll have to worry about the wind and the sand. Down here, we don't. Plus, it's warmer down here."

"Oh…"

Luminara smiled. "Unless you want to walk on the surface."

"No, I can deal with this."

"I thought so."

Barriss nodded and continued walking. The two walked in silence for most of the five mile walk. Speaking only to point out different aspects of the mines.

A couple of hours later they spotted another ladder leading to the surface. "Lets go up here." Luminara stated looking up.

"Has it been five miles?"

"I'm pretty sure it's been about that many." Luminara grabbed onto the first rung of the ladder and started up. Barriss followed.


	3. Chapter 3

They reached the surface in a matter of minutes and replaced the sand masks. Looking around they spotted a few scattered structures that notified them of a house being there.

Luminara led the way to the nearest structure and knocked on the door. She and Barriss both removed the sand masks. A few moments later a woman answered it.

She had green skin just a shade lighter than Luminara's and a row of diamond shaped tattoos going down the left side of her face starting just below her eye in an interlocking pattern. She had blue eyes, the same shade as Barriss's, that turned upward slightly at the corners and both of her lips were stained dark navy blue. She looked to be in her late forties or early fifties.

At the same time both Luminara and Barriss smiled. "Mom!"

Luminara looked down at the confused padawan who was looking up at her. "Master, that's my mom. Not yours."

Luminara shook her head. "You must be mistaken Barriss, I think I would recognize my own mother."

"Master! I assure that is _my_ mom!" Barriss stared at her master.

"And I assure you that is-"

"Girls, girls, calm down." The woman put her hands up in a calming manner as she laughed. "I can't believe you guys are here! Come in, don't freeze to death!" She moved to let the two Jedi in.

Luminara exchanged glances with Barriss before going into the house. The woman led them to a room and sat them both down on a couch.

Barriss was the first to speak. "Okay can somebody please explain to me what's going on?"

The woman looked from Barriss to Luminara. "What a coincidence that you are her master… I would have never guessed, out of thousands of Jedi…"

Luminara blinked. "Excuse me but, can you please explain what's going on?"

"You don't know do you…"

"Know what?"

The woman laughed. "You two are related! Sisters actually."

Luminara's jaw dropped. "What?"

The woman just laughed and turned her head and coughed a few times.

"Are you okay?" Barriss asked.

She cleared her throat. "Yes I'm fine, just a cold."

"Okay... So where's dad at?"

"He's still working in the minds along with Cirrus and the twins."

Luminara's face lit up. "Cirrus is still here?"

The woman laughed. "Yes, Luminara your brother's still here."

Barriss smiled. "So do you know what time that they're supposed to be back home?"

"In a couple of hours I believe."

"Cool."

Luminara gasped and stood up. "Is my room still in the back?"

The woman laughed. "Yes, your room is still back there."

Luminara took off in the direction of the room.

Barriss blinked. "Wasn't that my room too?"

"Yes, all you kids were in that room at one point in time."

"Cool." Barriss stood and followed the direction her master took.

She caught up with the older woman and looked around the room they were standing in. The walls were light blue, the floor was a dark wood, and the ceiling was a darker shade of blue than the walls and had stars painted on it. There was a bed in the corner and a dresser along another wall. It was just the way she remembered it.

"It hasn't changed a bit…" Luminara stated.

"You're right…" Barriss walked around the room running her hands along the walls.

Luminara smiled and looked up at the stars on the ceiling. "I remember painting these with my mom when I was four…"

Barriss looked up as well. "You painted those?"

"Well mom helped me with most of them.. I remember painting one on my own…" She searched the ceiling for the star. "There, that one." She pointed at a blob that was vaguely star shaped.

Barriss laughed. "How ironic."

"What?"

"That one was my favorite one."

Luminara frowned. "Why? It's all misshapen and deformed."

Barriss smiled remembering the times of her past. "Because it's different. It reminded me of me."

The Mirialan master laughed. "Well you always were unusual."

"Master…" Barriss complained

"I was just joking, Barriss."

The padawan rolled her eyes. "Your sense of humor is almost as bad as Master Kenobi's…"

Luminara blinked. "That makes no sense."

"Your jokes suck."

"Now that's not very nice."

Barriss shook her head. "When I said it reminded me of myself I meant by the fact that it stuck out from the others. I never really fit into a crowd. I would look up at it every night and think, if it can still fit in even though it's different, maybe I could too."

Luminara looked down at her padawan a long while. "That's very thoughtful, Barriss. I never knew you were so perceptive."

The padawan was confused at this for a few moments but eventually decided that her master was being sincere and not making fun of her. "Well you might know me better if you were in the quarters more often."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're almost always somewhere else. Making reports to the chancellor, helping the council, on some sort of mission, you're never actually in the quarters."

Luminara thought about this. "I suppose you are right… well, I can't very well do any of those things now, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"

Barriss shrugged and sat down cross legged on the floor. "Okay… um what do you want to know?"

Luminara sat down across from her padawan. "Hmm… do you have any hobbies?"

"I like reading…"

Luminara nodded. "Reading is good, do you have a favorite book?"

Barriss smiled. "Yeah I really like this book called The Angels of Ilum."

"Oh I know that book I read it a few years ago. I agree it is a very good book."

Barriss nodded. "Okay now it's my turn to ask a question."

And so they talked. And talked. And talked, for nearly two hours.

* * *

Okay I'm just going to list the names of Barriss and Luminara's siblings because writing 'the woman' all the time gets kind of annoying. Okay so their mom's name is Lumiya(yes I know this is some psycho sith chick in the new Jedi order or something but when I heard the name I liked it and I only recently found out about who the actual person is), Barriss's dad's name is Barren, Luminara's older brother is Cirrus, and the twins are Leyte and Kenya (Woot I named them after countries… I think… is Leyte a country?). So yeah… they'll all be introduced in the next chapter. So yep…


	4. Chapter 4

The minutes passed by quickly as Luminara and Barriss talked. Before they knew it Lumiya(Luminara and Barriss's Mom) was standing in the doorway. "Hey everyone's back from working in the mines."

The two Jedi looked up. "Okay we'll be out in a second." Barriss said.

Lumiya nodded. "Okay I'll tell them." She left.

Luminara stood and helped her padawan up as well. Barriss led the way to the other room in which they were in previously.

In this room was Lumiya, along with four new people. The oldest was a man maybe a little older than Lumiya. His skin was a shade lighter yellow than Barriss's. He had shaggy black hair and what looked like an attempt to grow facial hair. He had blue eyes like everyone else in the room and diamond shaped tattoos in a pattern on his forehead. This was Barren.

Next in line was another man who was much younger, maybe a year or two older than Luminara. He had shoulder length black hair and a triangular face, much like Luminara's. His eyes were also the same shade as hers. He had skin that was almost identical in shading to Luminara's. His tattoos were arranged down the right side of his face. This was Cirrus.

Then there were two girls, both looked to be only a little older than Barriss. They looked identical to each other, which is to be expected judging by the fact that they were identical twins. Both had skin that was similar in tone to Barriss's. Their eyes were a bit darker than Barriss's, and their hair was about mid-back in length and also black. The only difference in the two was their tattoos. On Kenya the tattoos were much like Barriss's tattoos but the bridge of her nose wasn't tattooed. Leyte's were diamond shapes going along her jaw line.

As soon as Luminara and Barriss stepped into the room huge smiles broke out on their faces as they met up with the people of their pasts. Barriss went up to the twins, leyte and Kenya, and started talking to them about all of her past adventures. Luminara went up to the only one she recognized other than Lumiya. Cirrus.

"Cirrus!" She grinned and hugged her brother.

"Hey 'Ara!" He laughed and looked at her. "Wow, you've grown…"

"Yeah, so have you. Last time I saw you, you were four feet tall, now what are you six foot?" She laughed.

"Six foot seven inches." He boasted.

"Wow, I like your tattoos, they look good."

"Thanks, likewise with yours."

Luminara looked around the room. "So where's dad?"

Cirrus's expression changed. "You didn't know…?"

"Know what?"

"Dad died almost nineteen years ago 'Ara…"

Luminara's jaw fell open. "What?"

"I thought you knew…"

Luminara shook her head. "No… no I didn't know that…" She let out a breath and sat down on the couch putting a hand to her head. "W-why didn't somebody tell me…?"

Cirrus sat down next to her and put a hand on her back. "We sent a letter, I thought you had gotten it."

Luminara put her hands out in a gesture of confusion. "I don't know if I got the letter or not! Force, I would have been what, eight?" She closed her eyes trying to control her emotions.

Cirrus sighed. "I'm sorry…"

Luminara shook her head and took a deep breath. "It's uh… it's not your fault… it's too late to do anything about it anyway…"

"Do want anything? Like a tissue or something?"

"No I'm fine..."

"Okay…"

Luminara sighed as her thoughts turned inward. Her father had died, almost twenty years ago and she didn't even realize it until that moment. That made her feel really guilty. She hadn't honored her father's death in the traditional way that she had thought she would. She did absolutely nothing. Not a thing.

She was brought out of her thoughts by an unfamiliar voice and the presence of an outstretched hand before her. She looked up at the man called Barren and forced a smile onto her face.

"Hello, I'm Barren Offee." He said kindly.

Luminara shook his hand. "I'm Luminara Unduli. Your daughter's master."

"And also her older sister, and therefore also my step-daughter." He smiled.

She nodded. "I guess so."

"This is probably quite a bit to take in isn't it?"

Luminara half laughed. "Yeah… maybe a little…"

"Here, I'll help you out some. Leyte, Kenya, can you come here for a moment?"

The two girls walked over in sync. They seemed to do everything that way, Luminara noted. "Yeah?"

"Why don't you introduce yourselves to your older sister?"

Kenya spoke. "Okay." She smiled and turned to Luminara. "Hi, I'm Kenya Offee."

"And I'm Leyte Offee." Leyte added.

Luminara blinked. They even _sounded_ the same… "I'm Luminara Unduli. It's nice to meet you both." She smiled.

They nodded. Both of them at the same time, and left. Barriss walked up a few moments later. "This is great!"

Luminara smiled. "Yes it is, although the twins kind of scare me… are you sure they aren't droids?"

Barriss laughed. "Yeah I'm sure."

Lumiya walked up to the two. "It's great to see you two again, especially after so long. So how long are you two going to be staying?"

Both of them shrugged. "We don't know, maybe a week or so." Luminara said.

"Okay, sounds good. You two just get yourselves acquainted with the rest of the group and I'll start on dinner, okay?"

Barriss nodded. "Okay."

"Do you want any help with dinner, mom?" Luminara offered.

"Only if you want to."

"Okay, I'll help with dinner." Luminara stood up from the couch and followed the older woman into the kitchen. What she thought was only going to be a simple conversation with her mother was actually going to be one of the worst moments of Luminara's life.


	5. Chapter 5

Once the two Mirialan women were in the kitchen they quickly fell into the pattern of cooking. Luminara started a conversation. "I heard about dad…"

Lumiya blinked. "What about him?"

"That he died…"

"You didn't know?" Lumiya asked while starting to chop various vegetables up.

"Not until today…"

"Damn Trade Federation… they must not have sent the letter…"

Luminara sighed. "Um mom… If you don't mind me asking… how did he die?"

Lumiya paused in her work. "He… he was killed in a mining accident… the whole shaft collapsed… only four survived out of seventy… he never came home."

"Oh…"

"They found his body a month or so later…" Lumiya sighed and resumed her task of chopping vegetables.

"So when did you meet Barren?" Luminara asked, choosing a brighter topic.

"About a year after your father died, I met him in the mines. He's very nice, I think you'd like him Luminara, if you got to know him."

"So is he anything like dad?"

The older Mirialan shrugged. "In some ways I think he's the same man, but at other times they're quite different. Barren is more straightforward than your father was. He will state his opinion faster than your father would."

Luminara nodded. "Yeah, I remember dad always being one of the quiet types…"

"Luminara, can you hand me the bowl on the counter over there?"

Luminara turned and picked up said object and handed it to the older woman. "Here,"

Lumiya took the bowl. "Thanks." She turned around toward the stove but before she could put the bowl back onto the counter it fell out of her hands onto the floor as she started coughing again. Luminara rushed over to her and steadied her mother as she swayed until she was steady again.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

She took a few breaths before answering. "Yeah, yes I am fine…" She picked up the bowl and studied it to make sure there were no cracks. Satisfied, she put it onto the counter.

"Okay… Hey mom, I have a question…"

"Hmm?" Lumiya started putting the chopped vegetables into the bowl.

"Why aren't you working in the mines? Last I remember, they had households mine together."

"It's because of my cold, they're letting me stay at home until it passes."

Luminara frowned. "The trade federation doesn't let people stop mining because of illnesses such as a cold mom. They only let people take off if they are older than seventy, younger than seven, or have a terminal illness."

Lumiya shrugged. "I guess the trade federation has lightened up a little."

"Mom… We just had this huge dispute with the trade federation on Geonosis… if anything they're more strict…"

"Huh… well um… I don't know then…" She put the vegetables from the bowl into a pot and put that onto the stove.

Luminara walked around to face her mother. "Mom… you're lying… I can sense it…"

The older Mirialan turned away from her daughter to the sink and started washing the bowl.

"Mom? Are you sick?"

"Yes, I have a cold, Luminara."

Luminara was not convinced. "Mom…"

"Luminara, I don't want to talk about it…" Lumiya said this very quietly.

"Your sick aren't you? And it's not a cold, it's worse than that. What is it?"

Lumiya sighed and stopped washing the dishes. "Luminara… you and Barriss are here for the first time since I gave you to the Jedi, I want you two to be happy while you're here. You don't need to know what's going on with me. It's no big deal anyway."

Luminara blinked. "Mom, if something's wrong I want to know, maybe I can help you."

"You can't help this…"

Luminara walked around to stand beside her mother again and looked at her face. "Mom… what's wrong?"

"You don't want to know Luminara…"

"Yes I do, just please tell me."

"If you must know, I… I have cancer…"

Luminara's jaw dropped. "Mom…"

Lumiya sighed and took the now clean bowl out of the sink. "I told you that you didn't want to know…"

"No I just… Do the others know?"

Lumiya shook her head. "No… And you're not to tell them."

"But mom, this is serious-"

"You are _not_ going to tell them. Do you understand?"

Luminara suddenly felt as if she was four again, being scolded for leaving the door open and letting the cold in. She nodded. "Alright."

Lumiya nodded. "Okay."

The rest of the dinner preparations were carried out in silence. The family had dinner normally, sharing stories with Luminara and Barriss… or just Barriss. Luminara was abnormally quiet for the whole meal. Cirrus noticed this.

"Is something bothering you 'Ara? You're awfully quiet…"

Luminara was snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh? Oh uh… no, nothing's wrong…"

"You sure?"

Luminara nodded. "Yes I'm sure."

Cirrus wasn't convinced but he didn't want to intrude on any of his sister's personal matters so he just let it slide. "Okay…"

After a few more moments of pushing her untouched food around on her plate with her fork Luminara sighed. "I think I'm going to go ahead and get some sleep…"

Lumiya looked up from her own meal. "Okay, do you want to sleep in your old room or on the couch?"

"I'll just sleep on the couch…" Luminara stood, picked up her plate and washed it in the kitchen before going to the room that housed the couch and fell asleep to nightmares upon nightmares. It was going to be a long night…


	6. Chapter 6

It's dark, there are clouds in the sky. The clouds threaten rain and block out the sun. It's windy, as it always is. There are dead plants everywhere it seems like everything in sight is dead. Even the silence is dead. She looks around at the landscape wondering why she's there. There are tombstones as far as the eye can see in all directions. They are dark, and all have names on them of deceased.

Thunder booms overhead, causing her to look up at the sky. She squints her eyes, half expecting rain to fall. She see's the clouds swirling around each other, almost as if they're trying to get a better look at the scene on the ground. Lightning flashes, illuminating the entire landscape in a flash of light. And then it's dark again, her eyes adjust back to the darkness. The winds grow stronger, howling in her ears. She bends over, leaning against the wind.

The wind picks up, blowing her back. She digs her heels into the ground to try and stop herself from being blown away. She's being moved anyway, across the ground until her feet get caught on a tombstone. She tries to hold on but fails and gets blown up into the air, spinning and thrashing around.

Suddenly the wind stops and she starts falling. She whips around and sees the ground below her, coming closer and closer. She hits the ground but there is no noise, no pain.. It's as if she's landed on a soft lading pad.

She catches her breath and pries herself off of the ground and looks up, straight at a tombstone. It's a particularly new one, she notes, because of it's smooth surface. She sits up and goes over to it. There are word on the surface and she reads them, only to stumble back in horror. LUMIYA OFFEE.

She shakes her head as if she can shake away the name. Lightning flashes again. Everything is white. Then it's dark again, except she isn't thinking about how light or dark it is. She's screaming at the corpse that has appeared in front of her.

It has already started decomposing and the color from its skin has faded into a sickening pale color. The eyes are sunken in and rimmed with dark shadows. The whole body is skin and bones, wearing clothes that look two times too big. The hair is black and stringy already starting to fall out in patches.

She stops screaming and scrambles away from the corpse as it reaches out to her, trying to grab her. She squints in the darkness, she can't see who the corpse is of, it's to dark. Thunder booms, causing the ground to shake. Neither she nor the corpse notices as it starts to rain. The wind starts howling again and the hood is blown from the corpses face, at the same time that lightning flashes. She sees clear as daylight who the corpse is. Even though the eyes are glazed over she can tell they were once blue, and the skin is pale with a hint of green, and on the left side of her face is a series of interlocking diamond tattoos.

This is the corpse of Lumiya Offee.

Luminara snapped up into a sitting position on the couch. She was panting and covered in a thin layer of sweat. Looking around the room she saw that it was dark and that everyone seemed to have gone to sleep. The wind was howling outside, as it always does on Mirial.

She sighed and relaxed slightly leaning back into the couch cushions trying to control her senses. Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths was the best method for her of doing so. Luminara pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head in them. She sat there like that for a good hour before deciding she couldn't go back sleep. Not when she knew she would have nightmares like that.

Swinging her legs over the edge of the couch, she stood and stretched. She looked around again trying to remember the layout of the house. When she had a map in her mind she walked down a hallway remembering that the bathroom was on the left side of the hallway. She scanned the wall and saw two doors. One was open, and letting the light from the room spill out into the dark hallway.

Luminara walked over to the doorway and stood there looking in, having to squint because of the bright light coming from a lamp on a bedside table. Once her vision adjusted she saw that there were two people in the bed, though only one was asleep. The other was sitting up reading a book.

She stood there and watched the other person read for a few moments. "You should get some rest you know… you need it…" Her voice was slightly hoarse.

Lumiya looked up from the book she was reading. "I'm not tired, but why aren't you asleep?"

Luminara shrugged slightly. "I'm just… I couldn't sleep." It wasn't exactly a lie.

"Is there a reason why that is?"

Luminara shook her head. "No…"

The older Mirialan chuckled slightly. "You never were a good liar. What's wrong?"

"I don't know… just… I'm a little bit stressed… that's it…" Luminara looked down shamefully. She didn't like talking about her feelings to others… but this _was_ her mother…

"That's nothing to be ashamed of. I was your age once too, Lumi, everyone gets stressed out. It'll pass."

Luminara shook her head and started speaking before she knew what she was doing. "No it won't mom, this isn't normal stress…"

Lumiya frowned and set the book down on the bedside table. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know… I'm still trying to process that you have-…" She glanced at the sleeping form, who turned out to be Barren. "…What you told me earlier…"

"Lumi… I'm fine stop worrying…"

Luminara stared at her mother. "No your not _'fine' _mom! You're acting like this is just the flu or something! It's not, why can't you see that?"

"I can see that, but I'm just not letting it get to me like you are."

"Don't you know what this is? Mom, your going to… you'll.." She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Lumi, just calm down…" Lumiya stood up and walked over to her daughter and led her out of the doorway and back to the couch in the other room. "Go back to sleep."

"Mom… how can I possibly sleep?"

"Just stop thinking about my condition and close your eyes."

Luminara chuckled. But it wasn't laughter of happiness, it was empty laughter, the kind that you hear and it makes you want to feel sorry for who emitted the noise. "And what else can I think about? Being a Jedi? Because that isn't exactly a walk in the park either…"

"What do you mean?"

"As a Jedi you have to follow so many rules, you have no real freedom… and that's the easiest part of it. Every time a friend goes on a mission, no matter how much you try not to, you always have a single thought in the back of your mind; _Will they come back? _And then practically everyone hates you just for being a Jedi…"

"….Well, at least you know you're making the galaxy a better place for your family…"

"What family? Mom, Jedi aren't allowed to marry, or have kids we're not allowed any sort of attachment whatsoever. We're not _allowed_ to love! Yet they expect us to be compassionate…"

Lumiya looked down. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be… It's.. It's not your fault…"

She sighed. "Okay… Just go back to sleep okay?"

Luminara sighed and lay back down. "Alright… but can I ask you one more question?"

"Okay…"

"When are you going to tell the others?"

Lumiya stared at the floor for a while before answering. "I don't know Lumi…"


End file.
